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At the Old Bailey yesterday, Rose grinned and gave a thumbs-up to Judge Peter Beaumont QC before he was jailed.

Now 18 and with convictions for criminal damage and arson, he is likely
to be released in less than two years.

Tragic: Three-year-old Rhys Lawrie, who was killed at his home in Eltham, south east London

Trevor Lawrie, pictured leaving the Old Bailey, tried unsuccessfully to mount a legal challenge against the Crown Prosecution Service after they decided not to charge Henry

He has been kept in solitary
confinement at Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution after other inmates
learned of his crimes.

Rhys’s grandparents said the ‘absolutely adorable little boy’ was let down at every turn by those charged with protecting him.

Retired construction boss Trevor Lawrie, 64, said he would go to the
High Court in a renewed bid to force Miss Henry to face justice.

He is convinced that his former daughter-in-law, who was cautioned for
perverting the course of justice, played a role in the killing.

And he said more should have been done after Miss Henry admitted physically abusing her other young son four years ago.

Mr Lawrie said: ‘The boy was just the fall guy. There have been a lot of cover-ups in this case.’
Rose, of Eltham, south-east London, met Miss Henry at a Bonfire Night barbecue in 2010.

The teenager began staying every weekend at the flat in nearby Erith
that Miss Henry shared with Rhys, who attended a school for children
with learning difficulties, and her other son, telling his mother he was
with friends.

On January 17 last year, Miss Henry came home to find
Rhys with a badly swollen face.

Rose claimed he had accidently elbowed
him and the boy then fell off a kitchen counter.
Henry called an ambulance, claiming Rhys had suffered fits.

Doctors discharged him, but experts later found he had probably suffered brain damage.
Rose killed the youngster four days later, on January 21, after Miss Henry left them watching TV.

When she came home the teenager claimed Rhys had suffered a fit and he
had put him in bed.

When she pulled back the bedclothes he was dead.

Rose later changed his story, claiming Miss Henry had inflicted the injuries.

He was cleared of murder but was convicted of manslaughter and the January 17 assault.
Bexley Council said an inquiry into the circumstances of Rhys’s death will be published later today.